They said it couldn’t be done, but that was soon proved wrong. They said it wouldn’t last, they were right but they found a work around. Now, the unthinkable, the G2 has been rooted, permanently. At long last, G2 owners can finally free their devices to do all sorts of crazy nifty things without the threat of losing root, and all they have to do is run the risk of bricking their phone. In what has been a long, hard battle, hackers (and specifically the xda-developers) have emerged victorious. LONG LIVE HACKERS!

WARNING: FOLLOWING THESE STEPS COULD VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND BRICK YOUR PHONE. FOLLOW THESE STEPS VERY CAREFULLY AND DO NOT MESS UP. TMONEWS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY UNFORTUNATE INCIDENTS THAT MAY RESULT FROM FOLLOWING THESE STEPS. HACKER BEWARE.

About Andrew

I’ll be doing this when I get home. Now to check on CyanogensMod and see if thats ready for the G2!!

GovnorDev

so glad to hear this! cant wait to finally root my phone :D

GovnorDev

So glad to hear this! cant wait to root my phone :D

Gossips

I thought of the big deal of the g2 was the stock rom. I don’t understand why people want to root this device. Surely you aren’t doing anything illegal with it right. tmobile charges a fee for tethering.. It is not free.. If you are tethering without paying for it then you are stealing plain and simple.Re

Kevin

Gossips, how in the hell is it stealing?

gah242s

Have you bothered reading the EULA? It specifically spells out that tethering is not allowed. There is no line item veto on an EULA, and even if there was, you didn’t do so. You signed an agreement that said you would not do so, and if you did, they have the right to charge you something insane line $1.99 per MB. Whether or not they crack down on it is a completely different issue.

2FR35H

What T-Mobile is doing SHOULD BE ILLEGAL, they are charging you extra for using the same $30 unlimited data. There is no stealing because essentially what you are paying for is an app not extra data. Being that there are other apps that are for tethering its not stealing. If others want to play high and mighty good for yall but those of us that don’t follow this protocol that t-mobile is playing are not the idiots here.

If any stealing is being done its t-mobile stealing money from you. 5gb calling it unlimited? that is misrepresenting.

gah242s

@2FR35H:

I understand your sentiments and agree that what they are doing is morally questionable. However, it’s not illegal yet. On the other hand, deliberately breaking a contract you signed is illegal. That’s one of the biggest reasons I won’t pay their outlandish $30/mo fee. Along the same lines, the false advertisement of unlimited data should also land them in deep water with multiple agencies here in the US. Unfortunately, it has yet to do so.

Ash

I’m on even more plus plans, no contract was signed by me….right?

joe

Do you even know what the definition of stealing is ? Or that other Android (N1), all Windows phones and some BBs have tethering built in and not locked down, allowing its use with no special fees?

Roadmasta01

Tethering isn’t the only think that you can do with root. The g2 having vanilla android is a big deal especially for those who do no modify their phones’ software. On the flip side of that, the g2 is now the top of the line android phone with a hardware keyboard from t-mobile. So for some, like me that likes having a hardware keyboard, it is the phone of choice. As far as other things that you can do with root, you can: change the look even more than OEM android roms allow, load up modified kernels to allow for overclocking, make back up images of your entire phone just like your home computer, try different the different UIs (Sense UI, TouchWiz 3.0, MotoBlur, NinjaBlur, SonyEricsson Xperia UI) on android to see what you like best and maybe help you decide what future android you would like to purchase, or load a the most current version of android (G1 with out root is stuck on 1.6, with root you can have up to 2.2 and I’m sure 2.3 in the coming months). There is much, much more that you can do with root. Suffice it to, there is way more things that you can do with root than just tethering.

John

FYI, rooting your phone will NOT allow you to tether for free. The tethering ability is not built into the app but the network. Thats like saying rooting your phone gives you free internet.

And to those who complain about cost for tethering. This is industry standard…sprint charges and so does verizon.

ChicagoAndy

John – that doesn’t sound right. Tethering is creating a bridge between the exiting cell network and the wifi. Bridges are standard network pieces that are done in software all over the place. No reason why a bridge needs anything from the hardware. It just forwards packets from one network to another. Really nothing very special from a software point of view.

Creating this bridge without tmo’s approval may be outside your contract, but there’s no technical reason you need their approval.

RCJ2002

Your a total idiot. Do yourself a favor and read up on some laws before you post things. Tethering is not illegal, just like rooting a phone is not illegal. If tethering was illegal, you wouldn’t be able to use it right off of the stock G2 and off of a stock Blackberry (which mind you has had standard tethering on most of their devices for years at no extra cost…I use my tethering and hotspots on my G2 everyday. I haven’t gotten any pop up on my phone or seen any lag in the connection at all. Come on people stop falling for corporate american bullshit and open your eyes. No one is going to pay extra for tethering on any android device when PDAnet and Easytether allow you to do it for free. C’mon and so does the Nexus 1 right out of the box and so does the G2, just incase you missed that earlier. Your such a Dumb ass.

RCJ2002

Idiot

sorandkairi

StFu

RCJ2002

You STFU B****

Matt Hatter

Please fill in an uneducated individual (namely me). What are the benefits of rooting your phone?

2Noob4U

Get rid of all your bloatware, wifi tethering, custom ROM’s which are usually faster than the stock ROM you are running now and you’ll get the latest greatest Gingerbread ROM or whatever will run on your phone. I was running Froyo 2.2 for months before they did an OTA update on my Mytouch 3g.

Splash screens, Apps2SD, Overclocking, and really a lot more.

Blasky

Same here… curious to know the benefits of a rooted phone. And if it gets bricked, is there a way to “unbrick”. Also, curious to know if a rooted phone will allow it to work off the $5.95 t-Zone plan, or will the phone still require an android data package of sorts?

jonshipman

Still require android package. It has nothing to do with the phone – it’s T-mo seeing you’re IMEI and knowing you’re on a G2. IMEI spoofing is a different beast altogether and it’s really easy to get two non-funcitonal phones (if a network sees two IMEIs that are the same on their network then that IMEI gets banned leading to neither phone working).

Rooting gives you complete control over your phone, Get rid of stuff you dont like and get better stuff, when you get an OTA every couple of months devs are constantly making new things for your phone or improving the old ones and the only way to take advantage of this is rooting. For example litle things I had with temp root than my wife a and boss wanted: LED notifications (not just the trackpad light), trackpad wake (love pushing the trackpad instead of the power button since my phone sits on my desk) over clock to 1420mhz (2229 benchmark in quadrant).

No with perma root you have roms and many things more to make your phone more unique.

hater

G2 wasn’t for me, but this is great news for those who have it.

oman222

I still have my G2 but I still feel like getting the vibrant, or the mt4 or the hd7. Im torn :(

Vibrant Addict

You have to fist decide what OS you want, Windows or Android. Then decide what key features you need in a device. FFC, physical keyboard, amazing screen, HSPA+, higher clocked processor out of the box.

Once you figure all these things out you’re set. As for me I’m still with my Vibrant, pending on Froyo officially releasing to fix some bugs I have, or else I’ll root it. If I need a FFC xda already shows a hardware hack to install a FFC on the Vibrant, so I’m set if I feel the need to have one in the future.

Barry

@Vibrant Addict You do know that you can root your phone apply the lag fix and still have stock everything and receive official updates. :-)

hater

I said I was going to wait until january to buy a phone, but I played with the HD7 yesterday and was very impressed. Impressed enough to buy it. I did like Android and sure they had tons of apps, but the majority (95%) of those apps are useless to me and the market is very unorganized with no wat to tell the good apps from the bad ones. The hardware on android phones is nice, but I was not a fan of the software. I was super impressed with the simplicity and the ease of use with Windows Phone 7. It does exctly what I need it to do.

I don’t need a FFC, I don’t need to be overclocked, I don’t need custon skins, I don’t need it to make me breakfast and wipe me after I take a crap I just needed something clean and simple to use and Windows does just that for me. Think of all these thing before you get what you want. I suggest you go to the T-Mobile store and spend a good amount of time playing with each of those phones (I spend about an hour playing with the MT4G and the HD7) and see what works best for you. Both are great phones so good luck!

Lover

Honestly sound like you don’t even need a smart phone (lol). I don’t think you spent enough time looking at the app store or you’d have seen that it is actually divided up by many categories, there are ratings by every single app and you can see the comments of people who downloaded those apps to see if they’re any good. Lastly Android is the operating system you can’t really say “I like the hardware on these operating systems devices” if you’re looking at hardware, look at the manufacturer (htc, samsung etc) not what OS itts running. Not to say Windows Phone 7 isn’t a great OS though, just sounds like you based your buy on how simplistic things were (which isn’t always a bad thing either)

CactusCat

What a maroon…..

2Noob4U

This is SWEET! They already posted a root process on XDA for the Mytouch 4G as well. I just bought a MT4G last night and was hoping this would happen.

They just lit up HSPA+ here in Pueblo CO a couple days ago and the girl at the store said it’ll be totally up in like 2 weeks.

I’d love to get my MT4G rooted and free of the additional software, but I really don’t want to risk anything to get the phone rooted. I guess I just wish they would have shipped with a vanilla + sense option and not included the additional software that can not be uninstalled.

Manus

Hey pueblo I used to go to school there. I miss angelos pizza

mtnman

Up here in the Springs we’ve had HSPA+ for about the same time as you have. My Vibrant as been rooted to 2.2, but then they do an offical update I’ll go back so as to see what Sammy has for it’s version.

2Noob4U

I wish people here could ban you for life!

JM77

BTW, Paul Obrien says we will have one click perm root using Visionary… TOMORROW!!!

So much work went into this from Scotty and his crew.
The community really pulled together on this one coming up with some really brilliant stuff thats WAY above my head.

God must be a hacker because these guys work miracles!

steven

yeah i’m definitely waiting for the visionary update, if i tried to root on my own i’m sure i would mess something up and not have a phone anymore.

cant wait to get a taste of cyanogen 6.1!

Shawn

Do you know if the one click perma root will also allow a one click un-root?

Vibrant Addict

Long live the hackers! It’s the amazing things that they do that make our phones that much better. :)

2FR35H

Agreed thank god for this news… But now I gotta think what do I want MT4G G2 Vibrant The infamous Nexus S/2 that should becoming in the days…

Robert

HTC should have spent their lock down money on getting the G2 not to reboot or power down.

PittsburghG1(nowG2)

I had that problem until I got the OTA update. Now, it hasn’t restarted or powered down once.

It would always do it when I left the parking garage at work and was underground with no signal for like 5-10 minutes.

GTwo Addict

The recent OTA fixed all that.

XfooYen

MyTouch4G was perma-rooted today as a result of this progress. Long live smart people! Hnnnnnnnnnng!

Tony

It should be illegal for carriers to “lock down”my phone in the first place. Imagine the uproar if Microsoft came up with a new “feature” that required you to “hack” your own computer just to gain administrator login. I bought the darn phone, it’s mine, and I shoul d be able to do anything I please with it, including “reenginering it at the code level.”

Gossips

this is false. That’s like saying hey I bought this cable box so I should be able to get every single channel from comcast. Doesn’t work that way. The phone had value due to its connectivity to the providers network. You do NOT own the network.

I don’t disagree with your assertion but your analogy is flawed, modifying a cable box to receive all channels would be theft of service, where modifying your phone to run different software than what the manufacturer intended isn’t.

In fact the most recent DMCA exceptions include the ability to jailbreak or root your phone.

ChicagoAndy

Robert – the analogy was fine. Replacing the OS on your phone with one that offers more network features (tethering) is no different than replacing the OS on your cablebox with one that offers more channels.

Fun and interesting yes, legal? Maybe not so much.

Kdmc12

legal? here’s legal. Apple tried to outlaw jailbreaking their phones by filing with the FCC. The FCC ruled in favor of the hackers, stating that jailbreaking is legal, as it gives more features to the phone, even though it breaks your warranty. So if the FCC says it’s okay, then it’s okay.

Mark

you don’t “buy” a cable box you lease or rent it

2Noob4U

Yeah I love rooting my devices don’t get me wrong…. if it’s the Nexus One you should be able to do whatever you want to the device.

If you are under contract with a provider and bought a phone under a contract you are and should be bound to their terms.

I think if you pay outright for the phone and have an unlimited plan it should be on your terms and your fault if you brick the phone.

Tony

2Noob4U…Buying a phone with a contract is still buying it!…It’s no less “mine” just because I used my carrier subsidy. I can even sell the phone or give it away if I choose; I still own it regardless.

Manus

Well said Tony

Felix

So if/when the one click perm root comes out we will be able to the cyanogen ROM?

That shouldn’t have taken long since the myTouch 4G is similar in how it protects itself. The G2 paved the way. I suspect the HTC Merge (Lexicon?) that’ll appear on Verizon will be rooted almost instantly since they how to do it, now.

Tmogee

What happens if you brick your phone??

Kevin

Oh, what happens? you sir make a miracle. it stops being a phone. it becomes an almighty paperweight!!! lol ;)

2Noob4U

Google—> “How to brick a cell phone”—->Search.

Funny stuff +1

Wilma Flintstone

That’s pretty cool. Can some fancy smanshy hacker root Symbian 3/Maemo or Meego onto the HD2? Nokia released a Beta for Meego a few weeks ago. Symbian 3 is on around 5 Nokia Devices now too. If someone does that, I’d be very happy to try it out.

30014

To everyone crying about free tethering through rooting, stfu. If anyone can get away with it I say go for it. It’s kind of stupid to expect everyone to have your moral convictions.

memphis10

Got my G2 OTA update today. It came with the wi-fi calling app which works flawlessly. But no tethering, at least I dont see where it is…

I reciever my OTA update also and found that the wi-fi tethering is in settings under wireless networks and then tethering and mobile hot-spot.

San Diegan

Just a comment about the tethering issue. The phone comes with a data plan that does slow you down after a certain amount. I thought I used the phone a lot and after very heavy use I only used a gig in my first month. That was the month I tried everything six times a day.

Connecting a laptop, with its bigger screen and more convenient use would definitely consume more bits than a mere phone. A full screen movie on a phone compared to a full scale movie on a laptop use far different amounts of data.

So, while I don’t exactly like it, I understand why there are different data prices for the two ways of consuming megabytes.

Just an opinion from an observer.

I really have no use for tethering but, last night in Costco, I tried it on a demo laptop. I can see the reasoning for using it.

ihatefanboys

rooting the G2 is like a woman with perfect boobs getting breast implants, its not neccessary. when i had my G1 it was needed, because it was limited physically, the G2 has no such limitations, it has enuf storage capacity to take 2 yrs of upgrades, especially if there is only one major OS update per year, not worried here.

Joshua

I got the MyTouch 4g and used it to replace my Nexus One, which replaced my G1. Rooting is not that big of a deal anymore folks. When I had my G1, it was a necessity. There were so many things that lacked in the software and Android was in it’s infancy. The hackers came up with enhancements before updates by Google incorporated these enhancements. Now, Froyo has managed to add all the great things that developers added to previous iterations of their roms. Rooting really adds very little to a device that already has all the key software and components now. Sure, there is the extra customization of themes and status bar and all that nitty gritty. That’s not really for the average joe, it’s mostly for those that are obsessive-compulsive. For those of you questioning rooting your phone and breaking your warranty, my advice is hold off until developers come up with a rom that really makes it worthwhile. The G2 and Mytouch 4g are so fast, it would be ludicrous to overclock it and put extra stress on the phone. Can you tell the difference if a car is going 200mph or 210mph? I was a hardcore rooter, it’s just not needed anymore. Save your warranty.

Damian

G2 and the MYT4G are the worse 2 phones ever tmo has ever came out with they both lag soooo much its insane

666

Mine is very, very fast! Maybe there is something wrong with your HTC Vision/G2.

RCJ2002

I have the G2 and like the Nexus 1 it has built in tethering and portable hotspot built right into the phone…I don’t pay extra because that is how the phone was meant to be used…It’s not illegal…I am for sure going to root my G2 and see if they have CMod7….All those you say it’s illegal to tether on the G2 obviously don’t own one or are like the majority of the population and are too stupid to figure it out…Thank God for XDA… Those guys are the sh**…

Vincent Pursley

im just starting out tryn to perm root my g2 and flash a new os system into my g2 but im still on 2.2 i cant even figure out how to do the ota update to 2.2.1 please please help me

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